St. Paul daily globe., 1887-08-13
have had possession of affairs at Wash.,
ington. DAN MANN. :
Mandan, Aug. II.
AN ITEMIZED ACCOUNT.
A Correspondent Who SpecifieS

To the Editor of the Globe.
notice in a recent Dakota edition OF
the Pioneer Press an article by Hon. Gs
A. Pierce in relation to William H
Francis, judge of the Sixth judicial
district of this territory, in which her
says this Judge is doing good work, ands
intimates that the many urgent de-.
mandS for his removal are for politicaE
purposes. Gilbert A. Pierce, whiles
governor of this territory, earned a.
very enviable reputation. But he is as.
well aware as any one in
North Dakota that the complaints
against this most tyranical Judge have
gone up from all who have had busi-
ness before him, except the Northern
Pacific Railroad company-regardleSS
of political Opinion-and the mild de-
fense offered by Gov. Pierce of thiS,'
judge is not in keeping with his reputa-
ton for unheSitatingly condemnimg alb
that deprives the people of their rights.
To those who have, for the past three
years, come in contact with William 81.
Francis as a judge it is incomprehensi-
BILE how he can hold his position under
an administration which claims as it's
cardinal principle the protection of the
rights of the people. l believe this is
owing to the fact that the actions of this
eXcentric judge are not known, and that
the reports of his dOingS are believed to
be exaggerated, and many times considl,
cred as Jokes. And it is not surprising
that they should be so considered; for,
it is almost too ask reasonable men to-
believe that such doings could takes
place in court of justice in this day.
and generation.
SOME CASES CITED.
Ipropose to state to you a,few trans,
actions that you may judge whether or
not Gov. Pierce's assertion that Judge
Francis is doing good work is true.,
July last Judge Francis, held
term of court at Valley City
and one of the first cases tried was an,
action against the Northern Pacific
railroad for causing the death of boys
by leaving two box cars upon regular
ly constituted highway, and a street I'M
the town of SanbOrn. When. this case
was called, and before the jury was
called to the box, the judge instructeG
the Sten0grapher not to take downa
what he was about to say. He thens
spoke for about ten minutes. of thes
great injustice that jurieS generally in-i
tiicted upon corporations, sayingi
that it was owing to an undue pre- j-
generally called as jurors against rail-.
roads that most uncOnSciOnable YerdictS
had been rendered against railroads and
allowed to stand in other courts; but
that in his court no such verdictS as
juries are in the habit of giving would
be allowed to stand. He said he had
had many years experience as railroad
attorney and knew that they were great
public benefactorS, and were too often
unjustly treated, etc. The attorney for
the plaintiff in this case, was
unable to obtain an objection to this
statement as it did not appear of
record, and he would not allowgit to be
taken down. After the evidence had
been closed for the plaintiff, on. motion
sof attorneys for said road, the court in-
strueted the jury to bring in a verdiets
for defendant. Plaintiffs attorney
asked for time for further argument,
and court; djOurned till morning. Dur
ing adjournment the. jury expressed
themselves as unwilling to find for de-
fendant upon the evidence already in,
and next morning, after further argu-
ment, Judge Francis renewed his in-
StructiOn and directed the attorney for
defendant to write up a
verdict asserting, and that they would
sign it without leaving, the
argued to the court that the jury shOuld
be allowed to retire to the jury room,
and also argued that the jury were mott
bound to obey the instruction to fnds
for the defendant, but that if they did,
disregard the courts instruction thes
court could set aside the verdict.
Whereupon the court ordered the att
torney to sit down or he would conn.,
NIT him for contempt. He then.
t urned to the jury and said: ''If the4
jury disobey the instruction of the court
to find a verdict for defendant | will put
them behind the prison bars in one
then ordered the foreman to sign
the verdict prepared by the attorney
for the railroad, which he did. Every
one of that jury have declared that they
were opposed to that verdict, and would
have found for the plaintiff had they
been allowed to retire, and had it not:
been for the threat of the court to im-s
prison them.
NATURALIZING FOREIGN CITIZENS.
Many Scandinavians have been made.
and Judge Francis invariably
to them the following qses-
ton: ''Are you socialist, anarchist,
or nihiliSt, like the
men under sentence of death at
Chicago?" The great majority, not
being very well verSed in the English
language, would fail to answer, as they
did not understand, whereupon the
court would insult them in the most
shameful manner. On one occasion he
asked Norwegian woman the above
question, and she cOntended that she
did not understand. He told her. before
a court room full of men, that she was
too ignorant to become an American
citizen: that it was burning shame
that the laws of the land permitted
such people to become naturaliZed, and
if he had it in his power to
refnse he would not make her
a citizen. Our poor fellow answered
the question, Eyes" (of course not
understanding its meaning), when the
judge said: Il thought so; your face
and general makeup indicate it,"
poor mans expense. while stood with
hand uplifted to take the OATH After
sufficient humiliation the oath was adj
TO such an extent was this
practice carried that the people contem-
plated reSenting it and the greatest eX-
element prevailed.
COERCING A JURY.
There was case tried by a jury of an
account between st. Paul firm and a
citizen of this county. The jury re-
turned a verdict for s,1007 for the plain
tiff, and the court after reading it sent
them out again, saying that he would
not allow them to bring in such YER
dict, whereupOn they retired and
brought in verdict for the defendant.
During the latter part of the term the
Judge discharged all the juries but one,
and, after charging them in certain
case, he said to them in substance:
Nov hurry up, gentlemen, as the court
needs you for the next case" They did
not agree readily, whereupon the Judge
left the bench, went to the jury room
and said in substance: ''Why is it you
do not come in with verdict? Didn't